In our morning reading: wishing Philip Roth a happy birthday, notes on Kathy Acker, a review of Kendrick Lamar's new album, what happens when your mother designs an ad for your book, and more.Read More →

In our morning reading: interviews with Teju Cole and Stephen Graham Jones, notes on Michael DeForge's new comic, a new Philip Roth adaptation is reviewed, Jenn Pelly on Sleater-Kinney's latest, and more.Read More →

Instead, I’m going with novels. Weird, idiosyncratic ones. Because that’s where my head is right now. It’s likely that giant nonfiction works will be discussed next week, alongside some very svelte essays. But for now: all fiction, all the time.

“There is some Darkness on the Edge of Town within Miracle Temple; dreams too big for a small town, highways beckoning getaway from all that conspires to keep you there. In lieu of Jersey, high school sweethearts, and Carter-era gloom, it’s the Outer Banks, straight girls’ drunken flirting, and cruel summers.” Jessica Hopper on Mount Moriah’s new album Miracle Temple.

“The age of technology is moving too fast to critique with any authority, certainly in novels. But what do stand out are certain emerging truths that seem fascinatingly at odds with prevailing wisdom. Like the relationship between the wired world and loneliness; or busyness and achievement; or social networking and love. So often it seems the technologies and mediums created for one purpose in fact foster the opposite.” David Goodwillie talked with Purple.

To prep for November 6th – when Brooklynites and whoever else lives in America will cast their votes for state and national candidates – Vol. 1 Brooklyn today premieres Frontrunners: a weekly series examining novels about elections and their entrants. May these profiles both rally citizens, and celebrate the sensual art of civics itself. With any luck, the “absentee ballads” vetted here might even find their way to President Obama and Governor Sideburns, and offer both men solace and inspiration in the exhausting days to come.